Celebrate your sysadmin today

Businesses have been urged to celebrate their systems administrators today — the eighth annual System Administrator Appreciation Day.

The celebration day for under-appreciated sysadmins was started in 1999 by IT professional Ted Kekatos. Kekatos was inspired by an HP laser-jet printer advert, in which a sysadmin is showered with gifts by grateful colleagues.

Kekatos felt it would be nice if this happened in the real world, according to SysAdminDay.com, and it is now designed to celebrate the under-appreciated "geek in the corner".

"When the email server goes down at 2am on a Sunday, your sysadmin is paged, wakes up, and goes to work. A sysadmin is a professional, who plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks, to get you your data, to help you do work — to bring the potential of computing ever closer to reality," says the site. "Let's face it, system administrators get no respect 364 days a year."

SysAdminDay.com urges businesses to show appreciation for their sysadmins with "a nice token gift and some public acknowledgement. It's the least you could do. Remember this is one day to recognise your system administrator for their workplace contributions and to promote professional excellence. Thank them for all the things they do for you and your business," the site says.

Alternative gifts include a cake and ice-cream party, energy beverages and an Apple iPhone.